Does he have a snowball’s chance?

November 7, 2011

It isn’t often that a presidential candidate comes to Blue Earth to stump for office.

But, that is exactly what happened last Friday afternoon around 5:30 p.m.

The Republican hopeful arrived with little fanfare and left the same way 20 minutes later.

Was it Mitt Romney or Herman Cain? Nope.

How about Rick Perry, Ron Paul or Newt Gringrich? No, it wasn’t any of them, either.

I bet you are thinking that the logical candidate to be in Blue Earth is Michele Bachman, since she is from Minnesota.

But, you would lose the bet.

The Republican candidate making a stop at Giant Park as the sun set was none other than John Davis.

I am sure 99.9 percent of our readers are saying “Who?” at this moment.

Davis is one of the many people who have filed to run for the nomination of the Republican Party to be their candidate to run against President Barack Obama a year from now.

Davis has been described as a “low-profile presidential candidate.” Some have called him the Republican “dark horse” candidate and a “long shot.”

No kidding. He has such a low profile no one has heard of him.

Davis describes himself as a common man candidate, saying he has never run for political office of any kind.

“I think that is a good thing,” he says. “I’m OK with not being in the typical media/political dogfight.”

Instead, Davis has decided to take his campaign directly to the people and bypass the national press corps and television network news.

To accomplish this, he has a motor home painted with murals with which he is criss-crossing the whole United States.

He calls it the Davis Votercade and he plans on visiting each and every county in the entire country.

Just for your information, there are 3,143 counties in the 50 states. So far, Davis has stopped in nearly half of them – 1,450 to be exact.

That includes Faribault County, Minnesota, on Friday, Oct. 28.

Davis figures he has visited with thousands of people in his 60,000 miles and 37 states he has been to so far.

In Blue Earth, however, there were no persons who showed up for his rescheduled stop. He had originally been set to be here several weeks ago, but the motor home had broken down and needed repair.

During his brief stop in Blue Earth, Davis and his entourage did manage to talk to a few traveling visitors at Giant Park, and handed out some flyers.

He says he is not disheartened by lack of crowds or support.

“I have talked to people one-on-one and crowds of several hundred,” he says. “We have stopped at county fairs and restaurants and just along the side of the road.”

He says people will see his brightly painted motor home and yell and wave to him. Others will stop and find out if he is for real or if it is a joke.

“It’s no joke,” he says with a smile. “I am a serious candidate.”

Davis says he is heartened by the many people who tell him they are sick and tired of politicians and the way things are in Washington.

“A lot of people don’t want a career politician in office,” he says. “They want a common sense guy. They want a leader that will make the tough decisions. They believe President Obama and the White House administration have been ineffective on so many issues and the direction they are heading our country is not what people want.”

Davis is a self-employed businessman from Grand Junction, Colo. His business is home building. He and his wife, Deb, have six kids and four grandkids.

“I’m just a regular guy running for president,” he says. “This has never been done before.”

He says it is time for Americans to take charge of the country again.

“We need to put God back into our country,” he says. “We are morally, financially and spiritually bankrupt. We need to fix this.”

Davis says he is just the guy who can do that.

“I’m a leader who knows how to roll up my sleeves,” he says. “I know how to work hard, how to put a good team together and how to be effective. I am the guy that has what it takes to make the tough decisions and get the job done.”

“I have what it takes to be the President of the United States,” he concludes.

That may be so. Except it will be a major miracle for him to get there and find out if he does, indeed, have what it takes.